Warm Bean and Chorizo Salad

Quick post tonight because I'm still massively hung-over from last night. The hangover really called for something like a hearty lamb stew, but its a public holiday here today (election day), so there was no chance of heading off to the Super U to find some ingredients.

Instead what we had in the house were the ingredients for a bean and chorizo salad. This recipe has actually become quite a staple in our house, we probably eat in once every 2 weeks or so, and I always have to search for the recipe (which can be found here at mediterrasian.com).

It tastes nice.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 onion, halved and sliced.
1/4 cup chorizo sausage, thinly sliced.
A punnet of green beans (haricots verts), topped, tailed and halved
1 tin of butter (cannelini) beans
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 pinch of sugar
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (which I actually forgot today)

Method
Fry onion for 5 minutes.
Add chorizo and fry for another few minutes, till it smells great and is staining the onions red.
Add green and white beans, and the water, put lid on and let cook for 5 minutes (the water steams the beans, so don't lift the lid to stir it because all the heat will escape).

While the steaming is underway, mix together 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, and sugar in a small bowl.

Decant salad into a serving bowl; drizzle dressing over; sprinkle some parsley over.

This recipe doesn't actually make that much. Serve with a crusty roll and this recipe is enough to serve 2 for dinner; if you want to serve it as a salad at a braai then the recipe should be at least doubled.

Breakfast BLT Salad

The problem with weekend breakfasts is they tend to be ridiculously soaked in oil (think full english fried everything), or as sugary as possible (pancakes with sugar, honey, and maple syrup). Then a little while back I came across a salad that can be eaten for breakfast. It doesn't feel like health food, but also it doesn't feel like a heart-attack on a plate.

Also, it tastes great. (and the recipe comes from here at http://www.taste.com.au/)

 

Ingredients

250g cherry tomatoes

2tbs olive oil

1 garlic bulb

3 rashers of bacon (about 175g)

1/2 cup whole-egg mayonaise (if I wasn't feeling lazy this morning, this would be the perfect time to test out some homemade mayonaise)

2 tbs lemon juice

6 cups wild rocket

1 avo, thinly sliced

1 bunch chives, coursely chopped.

Method

Preheat oven to 250 degrees C

Cherry tomatoes on tray; drizzle with oil; season with S&P

Roast for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven, set aside to cool.

Wrap garlic in foil, and roast for 20 min until soft. Set asid to cool. Cut in half and squeeze out pulp.

Fry bacon. (Surely you can do this without further instruction.)

Place garlic, mayo, lemon juice in food processor, and process until smooth. (Curse Wifey for leaving the blender dirty from last nights soup (recipe to follow)). Season to taste.

Combine tomatoes, bacon, rocket, and avo in a serving bowl.

Sprinkle over some chives.

Drizzle over some dressing.

Awesomeness.

Paternity leave - Roasted Pumpkin Salad

So 2 weeks paternity leave means I get 2 weeks to focus on my family's healthy eating for a bit. Of course I'm not getting nearly as much time off as I was expecting - a newborn baby and a three year old on school holidays, and a lovely lady who is in a fair bit of pain. But I am now in charge of the shopping and the cooking, so this blog might get a bit of attention as well.

We got home Monday afternoon, so Monday evening was nothing healthy at all. Fried fish cakes, fried sweetcorn fritters, and fried chips. Vicki was keen for fishcakes though, and after not eating proper food all weekend, I figured she could have what she liked. Just a pity that Jasmine poured her juice over the sweetcorn fritters as soon as I put them on the table, but orange juice flavoured fritters weren't actually that bad - just a little soggy.

Last night I got to try something nice though. I've also figured that, seeing as every time I look for a recipe and can never find it, I'm going to use this blog as my own personal recipe book for new things I try that taste good.

So last night - Roast Chicken with Roasted pumkin and baby spinach salad:
(and no, I still haven't started taking photos of the stuff I cook, maybe next time)

Pumkin Salad first:
Recipe came from www.exclusivelyfood.com.au

• 1.2 kg of pumkin, cut into 18mm thick slices
• 1 tbspn oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 garlic cloves (unpeeled)
• 40ml balsamic vineger
• 40ml olive oil
• 20ml honey
• 100g baby spinach leaves
• 75g toasted slivered almonds
• 100g feta

The recipe I was following said to roast the pumpkin in the oven, but first, my oven is broken, and second, I always roast chickens on the Weber, so I roasted the pumkin there too. I may have mentioned already that my life would not be the same without my Weber (kettle barbeque). I've got a fairly large charcoal one (because charcoal is clearly more authentic than a gas braai). As a normal (direct cooking) braai, it works fine, but its when you use it for roasting (indirect cooking) that it really comes into its own. I will do my best to write an in-depth analysis on the fine art of braai'ing on the weber sometime soon. For now let me just say - prepare the fire for indirect cooking.

Place slices of pumkin into a roasting pan, drizzle oil over and toss to coat.
Cut the tops of the garlic cloves and add to the roasting pan.
Roast (covered) for 20 minutes.
(Start preparing the chicken)
Take out the cloves of garlic and let cool.
Turn over the pumkin, and return to the fire for another 20 minutes.
I put the chicken in to cook now.

Once the pumkin is tender, remove from the fire and allow to cool.

Make the salad dressing as follows:
Squeeze the garlic out of its peel into a bowl and squash with a fork.
In a clean jam jar - add garlic, balsamic, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper.
Screw lid on tightly and shake well until combined.

Lay a bed of spinach onto the serving platter.
Top with roasted pumkin.
Sprinkle almond slivers over.

Just before serving - pour over the dressing and arrange blocks of feta on top.

I made way too much dressing, so its in the fridge, and I hope it'll still be good the next time I use it. This salad was absolutely delicious. I am definitely going to be making it again, probably the next time I have guests around for a braai. I also only used half the quantities shown above - because there were only 3 of us eating, but we polished the plate because it was so tasty.

Roast chicken is far simpler:

• 1 large roast chicken (so I can make chicken mayo panini's for lunch the next day)
• 1 large lemon
• salt and pepper
• oil for drizzling
• Robertson's chicken spice (undoubtedly cheating, but they do make it well.)

Wash the chicken, especially the cavity.
Place lemon in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes, just to soften it and get the juices flowing.
While this is going on, coat the chicken with a bit of oil (got to get your hands dirty for this)
Then salt and pepper it.
Liberally shake chicken spice over the whole lot, getting the chicken completely coated.
Remove the lemon from it boiling pot, poke with a sharp knife a few times so that the lemon is leaking. Shove lemon up chicken's bum.

Place chicken on Weber, away from the coals. Cover, and cook for about an hour. The only way I know how to check if the chicken is cooked is to slice it open - try to do this deep into the chicken - where you would carve off the thigh works well. Juices should be clear. See my in-depth braai'ing guide for coal temperature and arranging the fire.

A Masterpiece.